"Cherish" is an odd, mostly entertaining film that's hard to classify. While it's not without some issues, it's certainly original and well-acted, not to mention made with enjoyable style, if not always a grasp of what the film's trying to go for. The film stars Robin Tunney, an attractive actress with talent and presence who has found herself a part of some pretty lousy projects in recent years ("End of Days", "Vertical Limit" and, I almost forgot, "Supernova"). "Cherish" has her playing frumpy and lonely, but she still manages to be cute and charming, nonetheless.

Tunney stars as Zoe Adler, a mousey computer animator who goes out each night to get out of the house and not be alone. One night in a bar, she has a dance with her co-worker (Jason Priestley), who she's attracted to. After having one too many drinks, she heads out to her car and is confronted by an attacker, who forces her to drive. When she struggles, the car accidentally hits a police officer. While the attacker escapes, Zoe doesn't and is arrested for a crime she didn't commit.

She's locked up in an apartment away from her home to await trial, looked over by a technican named Bill (Tim Blake Nelson) who checks up on her ankle braclet. The middle of the movie largely takes place in the sparse apartment that Tunney's character finds herself locked up in. The result isn't as much focused on providing a story as it is offering something of a one-woman show for the generally underrated actress. Zoe glams herself up, plays jokes on local kids and occasionally interacts with her dwarf downstairs neighbor or Blake Nelson's character.

While all of these things are occasionally involving, "Cherish" needs something more inspired than having Zoe dump water on the neighborhood kids a few times. However, the scenes with Tim Blake Nelson and Tunney are surprisingly good, given that they seem like two pretty dissimilar actors. "Cherish" works as well as it does entirely due to the performances. Tunney is smart and resourceful, while Blake Nelson does pretty well with a limited role. In an uncredited performance, a legion of 80's pop tunes also becomes another character in the film.

While the middle of the film simply offers its ups and downs, it's the last act of the film that really heads into unexpected territory. While up until that point the film simply seemed an offbeat mix of comedy and drama, it suddenly turns into a thriller as Zoe hunts down the stalker responsible for getting her into deep trouble. The film is a bit too small and low-key to smoothly handle this kind of transition and the kind of explanations it provides to bypass some plot holes are not sufficent. "Cherish" has some moments, but it should have stuck to its subdued mix of drama and comedy instead of trying to be too many things in one rather short film.